1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to network communication control apparatus and method that perform network facsimile communication via LAN and Internet, using a facsimile apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, Internet facsimile apparatuses that employ the Internet are introduced, with the increasing use of the Internet. For example, Japanese Patent No. 3,133,297 (filed by the same applicant as this invention) proposes a network communication control apparatus that enables an Internet phone and Internet facsimile communications by connecting with analog communication terminals such as general telephones and facsimile apparatuses.
According to the above communication control apparatus, facsimile data transmitted from a general facsimile apparatus is converted into a TIFF file and attached to e-mail, to be further transmitted to other communication terminals such as the opposing Internet facsimile apparatus, computer, and network communication control apparatus similar to the sending apparatus. In addition, it is possible to receive e-mail data from other communication terminals via network, convert the data into facsimile data, and transmit the facsimile data to a connected general facsimile apparatus.
With the above communication control apparatus, when a facsimile apparatus completes a facsimile data transmission to the communication control apparatus, the facsimile apparatus determines that the transmission is complete, allowing the operator to assume that the transmission process is thus complete.
However, there are cases when the communication control apparatus attempts to transmit e-mail but fails to transmit the same, because of a power failure at the communication control apparatus due to problems such as a power outage. The transmission of e-mail data is also impossible when the network cable is disconnected or when the mail server is down.
In addition, even if e-mail data is received from another communication terminal, there are cases when the data cannot be forwarded to a facsimile apparatus because of a power failure at the communication control apparatus due to problems such as a power outage. However, the e-mail is still received. Therefore, the mail server completes the procedure as usual, without sending error mail, allowing the sender to assume that the transmission has been completed.
In order to address the problem, the communication control apparatus may include an uninterruptible power supply or a non-volatile memory for storing data. However, such an attempt complicates the structure, up-sizes the apparatus and significantly raises the cost. Since facsimile transmissions are based on premise that the sender should re-transmit data when a transmission fails, it is not very important to store the transmission data as long as the sender is notified that the transmission is incomplete.